other states to follow. If the idea of a Pacific Republic were
repudiated by their own citizens, such action would discourage secession
elsewhere and be a great moral handicap to that movement. And the press
further pointed out with convincing clearness, that should the Union be
dissolved, the project for a Pacific Railroad[19] with which the future
of the Commonwealth was inevitably committed, would likely fail.

Aroused by the moral importance of its position, the state legislature,
early in the winter of 1860-1861, had passed a resolution of fidelity to
the Union, in which it declared "That California is ready to maintain
the rights and honor of the National Government at home and abroad, and
at all times to respond to any requisitions that may be made upon her to
defend the Republic against foreign or domestic foes." Succeeding events
proved the genuineness of this resolve.

In the early spring of 1861, the War Department sent General Edwin A.
Sumner to take command of the Military Department of the Pacific with
headquarters at San Francisco, supplanting General Albert Sidney
Johnston who resigned to fight for the South. This was a most fortunate
appointment, as Sumner proved a resourceful and capable official,
ideally suited to meet the crisis before him. Nor does this reflect in
any way upon the superb soldierly qualities of his predecessor. Johnston
was no doubt too manly an officer to take part in the romantic
conspiracies about him. He was every inch a brave soldier who did his
fighting in the open. Like Robert E. Lee, he joined the Confederacy in
conscientious good faith, and he met death bravely at Shiloh in April,
1862.

Sumner was a man of action and he faced the situation squarely. To him,
California and the nation will always be indebted. One of his first